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Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Promises Star Wars Episode 7

The Walt Disney Company has expanded its media empire to now include Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company responsible for the hit Star Wars franchise by George Lucas. Disney has promised to add a seventh movie to the scifi series. Lucasfilm will join Pixar, Marvel, ESPN, and ABC under the Disney banner. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become president and reported to Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Lucas will become a consultant on the future Star Wars movies.

News of the purchase has set social media on fire. While some are hopeful that Disney, having shown success with blockbuster films such as The Avengers, may be able to redeem the franchise after the widely-panned prequel trilogy. Many more are not so hopeful, die-hard Star Wars fans crying out in frustration as Mickey Mouse rises to be the new emperor. It has also sparked a great deal of Disney-related humor.

The internet should take a quick breather, though, and recall that Disney and Star Wars have had a great partnership for a very long time, as anyone who has been to a Disney theme park and ridden Star Tours can attest to. If anyone was going to purchase Star Wars, it would have been Disney and, let's face it, George Lucas was not going to be around doing this forever.

The most critically-acclaimed of the Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back, was one that Lucas did not direct. With him acting as a creative consultant, being the great storyteller that he is, and one of the many skilled directors attached to Disney at the helm, the seventh installation of this great movie franchise can be something to look forward to.

Unless Disney releases anything else like Jar Jar Binks on us again. If that happens, it's time to start a rebellion against the Mouse.